Islam Online- Do not Put Islamic Spin on French Riots: Ramadan
s French riots continued unabated for the 12th night running, seeing more cars torched and French authorities threatening curfews, a well-known Muslim thinker warned against bringing religion into a situation that has nothing to do with faith and a poll showed two thirds of French people dissatisfied with their government’s policies on marginalized suburbs.
“Above all, one must not Islamisize the question of the suburbs. The question that France must answer is absolutely not a question of religion,” Muslim thinker Tariq Ramadan told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Tuesday, November 8.
“There’s an obsession about a religious divide, but no one sees the socio-economic divide in France, with places in the process of becoming ghettos with the suburbs on one side, the better-off areas on the other.”
“There must be a struggle against this institutionalized racism. There are second-class citizens in France. That is the reality.”
“People (in the suburbs) have the impression that they count for nothing, that they can be looked down upon and insulted in any way,” Ramadan added to AFP, from his current vantage point at Oxford University.
“We’re in the process of losing a footing in the suburbs. Even so-called Muslim associations are more and more disconnected. The fracture is profound… We are seeing an Americanization in terms of violence.”
